The Three Rs
by Apple Senorita
Summary: War of the Worlds 2005Robbie finds Rachel and Ray as they hide inthe basment. With Robbie injured and not himself, can Ray keep his family safe?How about if the basement becomes the stage for the birth of another Tripod?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One - Robbie

"Ray! Ray, Ray! Ray! Ray!"

Ray sprinted through the house, to where Harlan was stood at a gash-like window.

"Keep your voice down! Quiet!"

Harlan turned, his face smattered in blood, bulbous eyes wide. Ray stood at the window and watched as the Tripod lowered a man to the ground, settling above him. It extended a probe. There was a flicker of light and then a needle was present, and stabbed into the screaming man that was pinned to the floor. He watched, horrified, as it sucked blood from him.

Ray pulled away from the window. He took a second to look back but didn't want to linger. He thought he saw something moving from the corner of his eye but thought nothing of it. He turned to snap some sense into Harlan who was sat in his little corner with the disgusting peach drink, chanting: Not my blood, not my blood, like some sort of mantra

Rachel appeared, watching her Dad. Ray wiped his hands on the back of his dreams.

"Hey baby, you alright?"  
She nods, watching his face. Ray sometimes wandered if that girl really was ten, her calculating look was more like a fully grown adult's.

Upstairs, there was the sound of clattering. The Tripods were moving outside. Ray froze. Rachel's look turned from calculating to scared within a second. Ray moved forward, wrapping his arms around Rachel. He hissed at Harlan, who was still chanting, "Quiet!"  
Harlan didn't hear him. Upstairs, something was staggering about. A shadow flung itself down the stairs. Ray ducked quickly across the floor, holding tightly to Rachel, and hid in one of the small square rickshaw 'rooms' contained in the basement.

The thing at the top of the stairs stood still. Rachel was breathing faster. The shadow moved forward as the intruder took a step down the stairs. It tripped, fell, landing heavily on it's side. The shadow scattered about the walls as it fell right down the stairs, landing in the water at the bottom. It was a somebody, a person. Harlan was stood watching it with his mouth wide open. Ray crouched forward. There was something familiar about the jacket on this person. And the cap. The cap on the person's tousled, bleeding head.

"Ro-…Rob-…Robbie! Robbie!" Ray cried.

He ran to the foot of the stairs, pulling his son out of the water.

"Robbie! Robbie!"

The boy was unconscious, wet and bleeding. Ray lifted him. Rachel cried, "Robbie!"

Harlan looked even more surprised. Ray lay Robbie down on the sofa, Rachel at his side.  
"Robbie! Robbie you're…you're alive Robbie!" she whispered. Ray could only watch. Only when the knowledge that the boy's head was bleeding embedded itself into his mind did he begin to move.

He ripped a section off the sofa, hoping it was clean enough, and dabbed at the blood on Robbie's head with it. He pulled off his cap, the Boston baseball cap falling to the grimy floor.

It took them a good half an hour to clean Robbie up as best they could. He still didn't wake, so Rachel lay next to him, keeping him warm, whilst Ray sat on the steps watching the both of them, a smile on his face. Robbie had made it. He'd found them. They had been incredibly lucky.

He drifted off into his own world, thinking of their next plans to get to Boston. Harlan, and the Tripods seemed temporarily pushed from his mind, plus the fact his house had been smashed to smithereens. He still imagined going back there, starting up his job again, having the kids spend more time with him, able to watch them grow. Rachel going to high school, seeing Robbie through college, into a job-

"Rachel?"

Ray peered down towards the sofa. Robbie was stirring, staring at Rachel.   
"Rach?"

Outside, the Tripod call sounded. Rachel sat up, eyes going wide. Ray ran down the stairs, and crouched by the sofa.  
"What, what's happened?" a disoriented Robbie asked. Ray held him down as he tried to get up.

"Sh, it's OK," he said, listening.

The air outside seemed very quiet. Harlan loaded his gun. Rachel's breathing quickened.

"I can't…my arm," Robbie whimpered, too concussed to realised this wasn't the best time to be expressing every pain in his body.   
"Sh Robbie," Rachel said. When he did, she put her hand over his mouth and lay down next to him to talk into his ear. Ray listened out of the Tripods. There was no movement. He was sure they had gone away.  
The Boston baseball cap on the floor began to shudder violently. The Tripod call sounded again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Ray

The Tripod Call sounded again.

"No,"  
Harlan gripped his gun so tight the strain showed white in his knuckles and palms. If a huge hundred foot monster wasn't hanging above them, possibly with a few buddies, then Ray would have laughed. Why did Harlan think he could fight a revolution of aliens with one lousy rifle?

Ray held his hand up, warning Harlan to keep still and quiet. Harlan nodded slowly. His eyes were almost as wide as they had been earlier when the blood had drifted in through the window on the air. That had all stopped now. Robbie was staring up at the ceiling as if were lying on his back on the grass on a sunny afternoon. Rachel was watching her father's face.

Ray's neck was strained painfully as he stared up at the ceiling. What were they waiting for? The sound of Tripod's footsteps made the little basement shake. Robbie jolted, trying to leap up but held down.

"Dad!"  
"Robbie!"

Ray didn't notice the rumble until it began to crescendo. It was similar to thunder, something Ray hadn't heard for what seemed like years.

"Is that the lightning?" Rachel asked fearfully, staring at the grimy basement ceiling.

Rachel's question was answered only by the crack of the lightning. It landed like a whiplash to the basement floor, splintering the concrete floor as if it were wood.  
Ray buried his face in the side of his shoulder, throwing his arms over himself. Rachel screamed and buried herself next to her brother. Even Robbie had hid. Ogilvy was pounding to the other side of the basement. Ray heard his mantra even over the second crack of lightning.  
"Not my blood, not my-….not my blood….not my blood!"  
Ray gripped Robbie's shoulder, and reached around to hold onto Rachel's arm.

"Come on!"  
He dragged his children around the back of the sofa. Rachel tucked herself under Robbie's arm, her hand planted over her mouth, screaming into her fingers. Ray held onto the pair of them, the heat of the lightning so intense he thought his hair might be singing.

"Daddy!"  
The lightning stopped.

"We've gotta go,"

"Dad!"  
"Robbie get up!"  
Ray pulled Robbie to his feet, a painful process for the injured teenager who groaned with the movement. Rachel ran ahead of them, up the shaking stairs above the sofa and onto the second floor. They found their way to the front door, Ray half dragging Robbie who was yet to regain full sense.

"Ray where are we….Dad where's my cap?"

Ray had the offending object pushed into his pocket but had no time to say, "Go! Rachel, through that door Rach,"

Rachel pulled open the door under the hall stairs. It was to the other end of the house, and Ray hoped it was just far enough. Ray ducked in. He became blind as the sheer black cut into his eyes.

"Robbie!"

He could just about see Rachel's wide eyes and her pale, frightened face.

"Robbie get in!"  
Robbie was stood in the hallway, watching the stairway to the basement that they had just clambered up.  
"Robbie get in here now!"  
"Robbie!" Rachel screamed. The horse strung around her neck was being garrotted in her trembling hands, "Robbie come here! Don't go Robbie!"  
"He's not going anywhere," Ray hushed. He leant out into the hallway. The dim light the world was pasted in allowed him to see Robbie's right shin which he grabbed and pulled on. Downstairs, there was an even more ominous rumbling than there had been. They could feel the ground way down below them belch and grumble and break. Ray yanked on Robbie regardless of the boy's injuries and pulled him to the hopeful safety of the cupboard. Ray shut the door on them, blocking out all light. Robbie sat heavily down in between him and Rachel. He was talking but Ray couldn't identify the words. The sounds downstairs were ear splitting. There was a scream of metal grinding upwards. The ground shook. Their small rickety sanctuary shook, the door banging in it's frame. Rachel held tightly onto Robbie.

The stairs to the basement caved in. The trembling in the ground grew until they knew it was directly under their feet. There was a pause so silent it deafened Ray momentarily. Then a mechanic whirr, and something broke up through the floor just outside the cupboard doorway. It ripped up the hall floor, wood crashing against their hiding place's door. The lock groaned under the weight. Above them the stairs began to crumble. The sound of a wall falling. There was the banging of metal upon metal. Something even bigger than the first thing moved up through the floor, breaking the house up the middle. Their part of the hallway was tipped, thrown towards the front door that had snapped under the strain of the rest of the house crumpling.

Their little world of darkness spun around them. Ray saw Rachel's purple t-shirt close to his face then gone again. The peak of Robbie's cap dug into his hip. He grappled for his kids.  
"Rachel! Robbie!"  
"Daddy!"  
The world went even blacker than the before, and stiller than Ray thought was natural.

Ray opened his eyes. There was red sash of light in front of him. He frowned, watching dust swirl in it.

"Dad,"

Rachel's wide eyes appeared in the cut of light. Then he saw the whole of her face, white and frightened.

"Hey darling, you OK?"

She nodded. But what were they doing here? Where was here?

"Did we roll out of the house?" Rachel asked, in a whisper.

"The house? Oh…we…"

Ray sat up, working on a brutal kink in his neck and wrist.  
"The lightning came back,"  
Ray was beginning to remember, "The lightning. The lightning came back,"  
"It was one of them. It came up from under the ground. That was what it was, wasn't it Dad?"  
"Where's Robbie, Rach?"

She pointed down to a dark corner of the small pit they were in.

"Is he OK?"  
"He's awake. He's talking weird though,"  
Ray nodded. He moved up into a crouch, and inspected the ray of light. It came from a small hatch shape in the ceiling. No, wait, it was the door. The door in the stairs to the shelter they were in. They had been tipped upside down. He tried the lock, and pushed the door open with his shoulder.

Outside the green grass of Virginia had turned to a red carpet was weeping weeds. Ray lifted himself out of their hidey hole. The scene was one covered in red, but also wood. Carpet, foam, metal, concrete. He stepped over a concrete chunk and turned to see how they had survived. A piece of the staircase, the one with the cupboard latched to it, had broken off. They had rolled away from the house on a huge plank of wood Ray assumed used to be the staircase.

After pulling Rachel out, and digging Robbie out of his inaccessible corner, something he remembered doing so many times when the boy was little, the three of them sat on the concrete slab and took in the scene.

"We survived this?" Robbie asked, quietly. Ray didn't seem able to say much. He stood up and jogged over to the hole in the roof of the basement. He peered down into it. There was a hole in the basement floor directly beneath him. Something had come up from under the ground. He knew exactly what that was too. He had seen this happen before, although he had never been trapped right above it. He took in the size of the hole and frowned. That was way too small for a Tripod to come up through. Maybe it had been a baby Tripod.

"I'm going to go down there, for only a few minutes. Wait for me here, OK, Rach? And look after your brother,"

He tucked a strand of her slightly matted blonde hair behind her ear.  
Down in the shattered basement, there was no level down. Ray moved carefully, so that he didn't risk breaking his ankle. He could hear Rachel talking to Robbie up above on their little concrete island. The sofa was still there, although the stairs had been smashed around it. Even so, the roof above it was in tact. It looked pretty solid too. Maybe he should risk bringing the two of them back down. He crossed the water logged floor to where Harlan had been sat. He wasn't there anymore. Ray rubbed his forehead and kept moving. What was he to do? He had to save his kids, he couldn't have gone back for Harlan.

A hand snatched out, grabbing his ankle.

"Ah!"  
"Ray!"  
Ray yanked his foot away, staring down at the blackened figure of Harlan.   
"Ogilvy?"  
"Yeah," Harlan spat blood onto the floor. He stood, stretching his limbs.

"That Tripod big enough for ya?"  
"How…how did you survive?"  
"I'm the resistance Ray," he said. Ray noticed the gun was still in his hand, "I'm as resilient as you can get,"  
Ray nodded slowly, "OK,"  
"Where are your kids?"  
"Up. Outside…whatever you want to call it,"  
"I ain't got all day Ray. Get them down here and help me build up our fortress again,"

Ray didn't appreciate being bossed around by Harlan and so ignored the large Virginian.  
"Hey, Ray! You ain't helping, get over here!"  
Ray didn't dignify Harlan with a reply to that so kept on working on Robbie's cut in his head.

"You hear me Robbie?"  
"I haven't gone deaf Dad,"

"Yeah, yeah alright smart guy," Ray smiled.

"Hey Ray! Look, here come ya little buddies! Like I say, maybe they'll train you as their pet. Pet you, train ya how to do tricks!"  
Ray frowned, "Harlan…"  
"Here they come Ray," Harlan said, gleefully. He cocked his gun. He fitted it into the gash of a window.

"Harlan what are you doing?"  
"Here they come Ray,"  
The distinctive sound of Tripods, far off.

"Harlan-"  
"I got 'em in sight!"  
"Harlan they're too far off! Stop it, what are you doing!"

Ray yanked Harlan's gun.

"They'll find us! They'll find us and kill us Harlan, stop it!"  
Harlan snapped his gun off him.

"We need to kill one Ray. Kill one, and the rest will be easy,"  
"What are you saying!" Ray bellowed.  
Rachel gripped Robbie's hand.

"You can't kill these things!"  
Harlan sneered.

Ray looked over to Rachel and Robbie.

"You understand what I'm gonna have to do? I can't let my children die because of you,"

"Daddy what are you doing?" Rachel cried, as Ray pulled the blind fold over her eyes.

"Whatever you hear, don't take this off,"  
"Dad?"  
"Rach?"  
"Dad,"  
"What was that song? That lullaby that I didn't know?  
"Hushabye mountain?"  
"Sing it,"

"_A gentle breeze_,"  
"Don't stop,"  
"_Oh Hushabye mountain_,"  
"That's my girl,"  
"_Softly blows over Lullaby Bay_,"

Ray kissed her hands and put them over her ears. He stood up. Robbie was watching him wide eyed from the sofa.  
"Dad, what are you-?"  
"_It fills the sails_,"  
"Turn away Robbie. Whatever you hear, don't come over,"  
Robbie shook his head, "Dad,"

"Don't look Robbie. Turn away,"

Robbie took hold of Rachel. He pulled her down next to her, her hands still over her ears. He gave his Dad one last look before he closed his eyes and buried his face into Rachel's hair, his free hand over his left ear.

"_Of boats that are waiting. Waiting to sail Your worries away_,"

The sounds of Ray's footsteps echoed into the water and around the basement. The door to the small coal shed where Harlan had been attempting to fire at the Tripods shut. Robbie screwed his eyes shut tighter.

"_So close your eyes, on Hushabye Mountain, wave goodbye, to cares of the day. And watch your boat, from Hushabye mountain, sail far away from Lullaby Bay_,"

After Rachel's singing, they couldn't hear a thing. There was a swish and groan of the coal shed door opened. Rachel pulled her blindfold off. Robbie took his hand from his ear, and opened his eyes. He let Rachel go.  
Their Dad appeared. He sat down heavily next to the sofa. Rachel sat herself on his lap, closing his arms around her. Robbie closed his eyes and relaxed into the sofa.

AS: Hi! I put in another part from the film, as I'm sure you moved it, but changed it a little. I've kinda changed the geography of the basement too but I can't be perfect! This chapter may have been a bit boring but I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for the reviews I've had so far!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Rachel

"Dad?"  
"Hm?"

"Why does Robbie act weird sometimes?" Rachel whispered into her Dad's ear. She didn't want to wake the boy in question who was asleep stretched across the sofa.

"I think he has concussion Rach,"  
"Is that bad?"  
"Well, yeah. He needs to come out of it,"  
"Will he Dad?"  
"Yeah…yeah I'm sure he will Rachel. Want me to sing you that song?"

Rachel smiled, and began stroking the toy horse slung over her shoulder, "It's OK Dad, I'm not sleepy now. What are we going to do now though Dad?"  
"What do you mean?"

"Well, now that Robbie's here. When are we going to go to Boston?"

Ray paused. He hadn't thought about that.

"We need to wait until Robbie's better then we'll go. The…the-the…um…" Ray struggled to think of a suitable name, "_Tripods_…seemed to have moved on,"  
"OK,"  
Ray went back into his own quiet meditation and Rachel returned to her toy horse. Things were quiet in the basement. The wind whipped around the enormous hole in the ceiling above them, a trickle of water ran over the lip of a concrete chunk not far off, and Robbie's breathing was heavy and relaxed.  
"Hey Rachel?"  
"Uh-huh?"

"If Robbie wakes up and he feels OK…do you want to set off now?"

Rachel nodded.

"You wanna see your Mom, don't you?"

Rachel was wise enough not to add: and Tim, and so simply nodded.

"Well we'll try, 'kay?"  
"OK Dad,"  
Half an hour later and Robbie began to stir. His bruised limbs were feeling slightly less stiff but there was still the feeling that a tiny creature was dying a horrible death inside his skull. He said up, slightly drunkenly, putting his hand to his head. He was met by Rachel and Ray staring at him.

"Hey,"  
"Hey Robbie. How you feeling?"  
"I've gotta headache but that's it Dad,"

"Really?"  
"Yeah…well, I'm a little stiff but that's about it,"

"Wanna try walking around then, cos your sisters eager to get off,"  
"Oh yeah…Boston. We're…we're still going to Boston, right?"  
"Of course we're gonna, where else are we gonna go?" Ray laughed, although his words carried too much meaning and truth for his liking.

Robbie stood slowly. Rachel put her hands on his hips to help him steady. Ray hung around by his other side in case he fell.

"I got up quick enough when that thing came out the ground, Dad, I'm OK," Robbie laughed. It had been two days after Ogilvy had disappeared from his and Rachel's lives and both knew why, although they said nothing about it. Overall, Robbie had had plenty of time to rest and heal, after spending those two days and a day before doing nothing but lying on the sofa.

"You alright to walk?"

Robbie walked steadily enough forward, his feet splashing through the puddle lit by the dim light of the outside.  
"Yeah. Yeah I think I'm OK,"  
"Great,"

Ray, Rachel and Robbie, found themselves four hours later on a busy country road, moving with others. Some of the people around them were camping. They had broken into cars abandoned by the roadside and made their own little homes, or else constructed rickshaw tents or taken cover up in trees. In whatever way they wanted, people were making places their homes.

The three had been quiet for the past hour or so, the two kids simply following their Dad and keeping still. Rachel was holding her Dad's arm and Robbie walked just next to her. His limbs killed, his head pounded, and there was a nasty pain in his chest, but Robbie knew how much Rachel wanted to get to Boston, just like himself, and decided not to let it bother him. He carried on, baring his teeth under his lips and wincing.

A thumping noise carried itself across the valley like a ball bouncing. Ray didn't react to it so suddenly. It sounded like someone beating something rhythmically. When he finally paid attention to it he thought maybe a car had got on the wrong side of an angry refugee and he was venting his anger on it. Ray didn't think anything of it until an odd shadow fell about his feet.

And then the sound of a Tripod.

Rachel latched herself onto Ray's arm. He bent down, sweeping her up in his arms. Up on the top of the valley they occupied, a Tripod stood lit up from behind against the sun. It seemed to be inspecting the sky. It seemed…smaller. Ray thought he had been imagining things but no, he was right. This one was smaller than the others. Not small, by any means, it was still about 70ft high, but not as big as the others they had come across. By the stunned silence in the crowd on the road, everyone else was thinking the same thing. And in unison, they began to think something else.  
Ray ducked slowly, moving behind the bulk of a car similar to the one they had taken from Manny's garage. He still held onto Rachel. Robbie, crouching next to him, was peering through the window of the car.

The Tripod called again. Robbie ducked.

"Is it coming?" Ray mouthed. Robbie shook his head. All around them, people were slowly moving towards cars, ducking behind any large object they could find. The trees, that had a few moments ago been alive with people scrambling to get comfortable on the branches, were now incredibly still. Robbie could see a few people steal behind the slightly dishevelled houses that lined the roads. A couple further up the road was lying flat behind a car that looked to have been chewed up and spat back out again.

The Tripod lowered itself to look down into the valley. Ray, who had been spying through the window, dropped back again. He put his finger to his lips. Both his children nodded. Rachel sat panting against her father's chest. She'd played hide and seek with these monsters before.  
The Tripod began to move, thundering down the hillside. It was the sound Ray had heard earlier. Ray pressed him and his daughter flat against the car, scared the machines height might make it easier for it to see them. The all too familiar whirr of the arms coming out of the machine broke the thundering of it's gate and then it stopped by the roadside. Ray glanced under the car. He could see one of it's huge feet planted on top of a car he swore people had been hiding in a moment before. It trumpeted into the air. It's arms whirred, stretching out. The thin blue line of fire, like a whiplash, hit the house just to the Ferrier's right.

"Stay still," Ray whispered, gripping onto his son who had wanted to shoot off at the first sign of open fire.

The Tripod waited, watching the house ignite, and began to be engulfed in flames. Ray held his breath. If the people in or behind that house made themselves known they were all done for. But what were they supposed to do when caught in a burning wreck? Ray peered under the car, and began to inch his way towards the back of the car, away from the fire. If everything broke loose, their nearest hiding place was in a car overturned on it's side.  
Screams began to wail from the house. The Tripod called it's brutal sound and began to fire. Around twenty people flew form their hiding places. A handful of people in the trees dropped to the ground and ran. Ray watched horrified as the fleeing people were turned to ashes on the spot as they made their desperate rush for freedom.

"Go, go, go!" he let Rachel and took her hand. He ran, half crouched towards the next car. The flung themselves down behind the shattered roof.  
"Robbie!"

Ray heard Rachel's cries but was seemingly blind. The fire had caught the summer-dried grass and was sweeping quickly over the scattering of clothes.

"Robbie?"

Rachel's face was all he could see, and she was straining back towards their former hiding place, "_Robbie_!"

The Tripod was beginning to spread it's fire. Ray's muscles tensed as he prepared to stand. And then the car they crouched behind was hit by the explosion of the car next to it.

Ray and Rachel flew down the bank, rolling down the grass and bumping painfully against the hard ground. They landed at the bottom, a patch of thistle scraping Rachel's cheek.

Ray hooked his arms under Rachel's legs and shoulders and stood up, running towards the next house. They needed shelter, they needed to hide.  
"Robbie!"  
He also needed Robbie.

Behind the house, a couple were hiding in a metal and brick coal box under the porch. They beckoned to the pair over the noise, "Come in!"  
Ray pushed Rachel next to them, "Please, please just stay with her, I need to get my son!"  
"Sure, sure!" they cried, yanking Rachel further into the coal box, "Quick, quick,"

Ray had no time to argue with himself over the situation. Through the fire and the heat and the smell that radiated from the very air around him, Ray squinted to see his son. Robbie was still behind their first hiding place. He was slumped against the car, eyes closed, his head leant to one side.

Ray sprinted like an Olympic athlete: close to the ground, arms moving to keep his momentum going. He scrambled up the car and threw himself down over it's lip, grabbing onto Robbie's arm.

"Robbie! Robbie wake up!"  
If an alien invasion wasn't going to wake Robbie up, his shouting wasn't going to. He picked Robbie up as best he could, but found time to run was taken away from him. The world shattered around him as the tarmac flew into the air. The Tripod was on the move and it was stamping it's authority. Once again Ray found himself rolling down the bank, and coming to an awkward stop at the bottom, this time holding his eldest son.  
He dragged himself to his feet. They were exposed at the bottom of the bank, at the edge of a huge field that stretched with no place to hide. He had to get back to Rachel. He couldn't stand them being split up again. Could he carry Robbie all the way? Robbie wasn't overweight but a teenage boy weighed quite a bit anyway, nevermind completely unconscious. He was a deadweight.

"Get up Robbie!" he shouted at the unconscious figure. The blood running into his son's eyes shimmered with miniscule reflects of the chaos.  
"Get up Robbie! Get up now! Get up!"

Ray hit the ground next to Robbie's head. It was as if he were comatose. "_Wake up_!"

He crouched on all fours over his son, and tears dribbled down his chin, "Wake up Robbie! Get up! Get up for you sister! You can't do this to me Robbie, WAKE UP!"  
Robbie didn't respond. Ray looked up the bank, towards the Tripod.  
He groaned, a animal-like noise of disbelief.

The Tripod spread a line of fire down the bank.

-----------------------------------

AS: Ooh, mean! Next chapter will be up soon so don't worry.

By the way I am sorry if the height of this mini-Tripod sounds off to you. I'm bad at estimating heights!


	4. Chapter 4

And then there were two….

"Dad! Daddy!"  
Rachel shot from the coal box, the hands of the couple she had been sheltering with grappling at her jacket.   
She ran through the crowd, forcing her way through the sea of people who were trying to go the other way. Through the panicked refugees' legs and torsos, she could see the forlorn figure of her brother lying sprawled on the grass, and her dad knelt at his side, staring up at the snaking arm that came down to them.

"No!"

She crossed the grass, tripping over tattered and charred clothes. Her Dad and brother were only a few feet in front of her. She started to run again but felt the heat of a light land on her side. She stared at her left arm. A small, pinpoint light was fixed on her arm.

The small Tripod had gone. She could see it moving up the other side of the hill, torching people as it went. In it's place, and arrived a full grown Tripod with its' tangling, tentacle light arms whipping people up like a harvester. The small, swinging probe stared at her through it's light.

Rachel screamed and ran. The probe lunged for her but missed.

Ray, sat next to Robbie, stared up at the tangling arms of the creature. It paused in front of him, swinging gently like a snake sizing up its prey. It had a pinpoint light on its tip, like a glow-worm, and the light blinded Ray as it swung into his eyes.

Ray gripped onto Robbie's jacket, determined not to let him go. The arm lunged forward and wrapped itself tightly around Ray's waist. The wind was knocked from him. He was tugged up into the air, his grip wrenching from Robbie.

Ray looked down as the ground shot away from him. People ran like frightened spiders all over the grass and road. He saw Robbie still lying flat out on the grass, and someone crouching over him. He tried to get a better view but he was being pulled up, higher and higher. He took one last look.

"Rachel! No!"

Rachel smacked her brother in the chest, unable to think of any other way of getting him to wake up. She blinked up at her Dad who had disappeared to the body of the machine. She didn't know who she was screaming for more.

"Get up! Robbie!"  
She hit him again, "Wake up Robbie! I need you Robbie! Why are you doing this, I need your help! Get up Robbie!"

Robbie stirred. Rachel beamed through her tears and shook her brothers shoulders.

"Robbie! Robbie wake up!"  
Robbie's eyes moved open. He couldn't fully open one, dried blood had crusted at the side from the wound on his hairline.

"Rach?"  
Rachel could only blink happily.

"Where's Dad?"  
Rachel pointed upwards. Robbie stared past her and up towards the Tripod hanging close by. It was whipping more and more people into the air, fishing its arms through the trees and bringing out waves of people.

Robbie scrambled up. He groaned. Something thumped angrily inside his head. Rachel wrapped her arms around his waist to help him.  
He took a few steps back to get a full view. Slumped across the grass to their right was an abandoned humvee. Robbie dug around the inside, Rachel trying to ask him what he was doing but couldn't shout loud enough over the noise.

Robbie scrabbled around inside the humvee. He felt a tug on his leg and turned to see what Rachel wanted. She was gone.   
"Ra…Rachel!"  
Something snatched at his waist, latching itself around his ribs and yanking upwards.

Robbie landed and rolled, hitting the edge of the steel basket. Rachel had landed on an unconscious man's body and was trying to move but through the crush of people, could barely see. Robbie pulled her across to him and they sat perched on a metal rung, unable to move. The basket was so tightly full of people there were feet and people all over them. Robbie held Rachel to his chest, keeping himself between her and the squash of people.

"Robbie where's Dad!"  
Robbie stared through the thick mass of bodies, looking for the weird aubergine colour of his Dad's jacket, or a glimpse of his face. But he couldn't see him. All he could see was his sister's scared face and the crush of people.

"It's alright Rachel, we'll find him,"

He rubbed her arm.

"What's going to happen to us now Robbie?"  
"I don't know Rach. Just…just stay with me, and we'll be OK,"

She wrapped his arms around his chest and buried her face into his neck.

"OK," she said softy. He could feel her cold nose against his hot and dirty skin. He moved so that he was leant against the basket's bars, and pulled Rachel closer to him. He had a view of the ground disappearing below them as the Tripod moved. He tried to shut his ears to the screams of the people in the enclosed space with them.

"What is happening to us!" a woman screamed and Robbie winced. He felt Rachel clenched her fists on his skin.

"It's alright Rach, it'll be OK," he said hoarsely. He stared out across destroyed Virginia. It was drenched in red. Red weed entangled the remaining houses and landmarks. He also noticed something else. Something like a small spider sprinting across the landscape at an alarming speed. It was still immensely huge and definitely a Tripod. But it was smaller than the one he was being carried in. It trumpeted, the exact same noise as its taller counterpart, and headed towards them. Robbie sat up, still holding Rachel.

"Robbie, what?"  
"Sh," he whispered. The smaller Tripod skidded to a halt. It's heavy body strained upwards. The light curled in its centre stared up at the larger one, flooding the basket with light. Rachel could see a slice of her prison from the corner of her eye, and she tensed as sudden awkward, frightening shadows danced across the terrified faces around her.

But she did as she was told and stayed quiet, keeping her face pressed against her brother's chest. He smelt of wood fire, dust and wet grass.

The Tripod below them seemed to have frozen, staring up at them. Their own Tripod sounded its call like a foghorn.

Robbie gripped what he had found in the humvee in his hand. The rough material scraped his skin. His hands were shaking.

Up above them, the red circle poised above the basket swirled open. It was ugly and red, like a muscle. A probe forced its way through, and wrapped itself around someone's ankle. Robbie wasn't close enough to help the guy like many of the others were, but he was closer to the probe. He grabbed what was in his hand and tied it in a rudimentary bow around the probe, as it tried to tug the man from the basket. He ripped at the top of the five small round things attached to the belt, then tried to help them pull the man back, hoping the probe would just give up and go.

It let go and, as Robbie had hoped, swung back up. The muscle swallowed Robbie's little surprise and the probe again.  
"Everybody get down!" he tried to shout, but no-one could hear him, "Everybody d-"  
The Tripod bucked and reared. An explosion tore at it's midriff, sending squares of metal flying from its surface. It crippled, falling backwards to the ground. Robbie gripped Rachel and braced himself for the impact as the ground rushed up towards them.

Just before they reached the ground, the basket became undone and rolled a little before the Tripod crashed heavily to the ground.

Robbie lay with Rachel for a moment, trying to keep his conscious.

"Get on my back Rachel,"

She latched herself onto his back and he clambered out of the basket. He dropped her to the ground and they ran across the grass, watching the burning body of the Tripod regurgitate a sticky, orange substance all over the red grass. The smell was foul.

The smaller Tripod stared at it's fallen ally, and froze. As Robbie dragged Rachel across the grass, he looked over his shoulder, dreading its sudden move towards them. But it didn't move. It stayed still, staring at the larger Tripod. Eventually, its large light in the front of its body switched off, and apart from the licking of the flames, Robbie couldn't see the pair of machines.

"Robbie! Rachel!"  
"Dad!"

Ray lifted his daughter into his arms and held onto her tightly.

He stared over her shoulder at Robbie, shaking his head, "Your awake?"

Robbie couldn't say anything, "I….I woke up," he eventually said, lamely.

Ray began to laugh.

Ray was determined not to lose sight of either of his children again. He wrapped an arm around Robbie's shoulders and held Rachel tightly to his side as they crossed an abandoned intersection. They paused on the sidewalk, peering down the smokey street.  
"Is that safe Dad?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah…yeah, sure it is," Ray said, nodding his head. They followed the crowd down the smoking street. They lost themselves in a mist of dense smoke and haze.

"It's alright folks, just keep it moving! Come on, nothing to be afraid of!"  
Rachel wrapped her arm around her Dad's waist under her Dad's jacket, staring up at the figures that would swarm out of the mist into her view, then be swallowed back again, like lurching, swaying demons. She closed her eyes tightly then opened them again. Now was no time to have a whirlwind imagination.

The smoke swept about their feet and Robbie nearly tripped over a car bumper.

"What's all this smoke?"  
"I don't know," Ray muttered, peering through the belching smoke. It was smoke alright, it was getting to his lungs. He coughed, picking his speed up. Rachel began to cough beside him. What had caught fire to cause this much smoke.

The air warmed up.  
"Are we walking past a fire?"

Rachel looked over her shoulder. She could just see the end of the street. People were pointing.

"It's getting worse Ray," Robbie said. He could barely see the rest of his body. The heat was becoming more intense.

"Come on folks its OK, just pass through quick and try not to breathe too deep?"  
"Is that the army?"

"Yeah Robbie, they know what they're doing. Come on, faster,"  
They broke into a half jog, but visibility was so poor they felt as if there was no-one left but them. The smoke began to get blacker. Ray could barely even see the top of Rachel's head if he looked down.

Robbie began to cough, and once he started eh couldn't stop. Ray felt Rachel coughing her face buried into his hip.  
"Come on, move faster," Ray ordered, and they began to run. He loosened his grip on the pair to pick up speed but clenched angrily to their clothes. Not being able to see made them jittery and nervous. Rachel looked back over her shoulder. She couldn't see up the road anymore.

"Where are we?" she asked, feeling a familiar wave of hysteria come up.

Ray strained to hear the sounds he had heard before. It was deathly quiet.

"Dad-" Robbie tried to say something but he was coughing to hard.  
"Keep moving Robbie,"

"Maybe we should just stop and-"  
"No, keep going Robbie, keep moving!"

He began to cough with a bark, trying desperately to see what was through the smoke. They were definitely near a fire. The heat was unbearable. But so was the smoke.

Robbie tried to breathe in but Ray heard the angry rasp at the back of his throat. Rachel was panting heavily.  
"Find the sidewalk," he said, through his coughs, "Find the sidewalk,"

Robbie grabbed his Dad's arm and edged sideways. His foot stumped against the sidewalk.  
"Got it,"  
"Get on it, get on it,"

Ray stretched his arm over Robbie's shoulders and ran his hands along the building next to them as they walked. Robbie jogged along, trying to keep up, and coughing into the smoke. Rachel gasped, her legs burning. She was having to run faster than the pair of them to keep up.

Ray's hand hit glass.

"Wait,"

He pulled them still. He tried clearing the smoke but a new, belching wall of thick smoke hit them. He felt for a wooden frame, or a frame of some sort, to denote a door.

No, the glass wasn't a door. He kept on moving. Robbie gave up asking his Dad questions, trying to keep his breath.

And suddenly, through the choking smoke, Rachel swore she saw something. A long, thin metal pole, rising upwards. She frowned.

It was so close she could reach out and touch it. Tentatively, she stretched out her hand. The tips of her fingers brushed the cool pole.

"Rachel!"  
Through the dense smoke, and through the dark silence, rang the sound of a Tripod call.

Rachel screamed. A flash of blue lurched at them but missed.  
"Run!"

Robbie stared gaping up at the enemy he couldn't see and began to run. His Dad was holding onto his jacket and presumably carrying Rachel, as he was sprinting almost as fast as he was. All around, strips of blue slashed through the intense heat and blanket smoke and cracked the pavement. Ray saw something reflecting the flash of blue to his right.

"Stop! Robbie!"

Robbie turned, coughing heavily through the smoke.

"Dad!"  
"Help me!"

"What, what are you do-?"

"Search for a door! Get a door, get us inside!"  
Robbie stared as he saw his Dad's profile move quickly about as he searched the wall. Rachel was clinging to his body, arms slung around his neck and knees pinned on either side of him. Ray's hands clambered over the wall like a blind man's, desperately searching. He had seen a window, and whether it was a shop or a café or something else, there must be a door so they could get in.

Robbie joined in, and soon touched the cool glass of a small square window.  
"Dad!"

Ray joined him, and his hands hit against the hard metal of a door handle. He pushed it down and kicked. It was locked.  
"Robbie help me!"

Robbie slammed his shoulder against it. The door shook but held. He rammed it again. He blinked through his watering eyes and coughed.

"One, two, three,"

He rammed his body against the door again. Rachel screamed as a hot flash of blue sliced past her. The door fell open. Robbie fell in. Ray leant out, grabbed his daughter under the arms, and pulled her in.

"Shut the door! Robbie shut the door!"

Robbie slammed the door shut.

"Now get down, get down," Ray whispered. The lights were on but they still couldn't see into the thick smoke curling at the windows. Wisps of the smoke stroked the window happily, swirling through the keyhole.

It was a café, with tables and chairs strewn everywhere. They crawled behind the bar. Robbie put his knee into a puddle of spilt coffee. It was cold.

They sat in silence, panting. Rachel bit her lip and sat frozen, eyes straining up to look at the top of the bar, expecting any minute a blue stripe to shatter the top.  
Robbie sat back against the cool bar, trying to regain his breath. He felt light headed from the smoke and the obvious loss of blood. The cut on his head had been bandaged up at an American Red Cross post half an hour ago but he still felt queasy and his head throbbed.

Ray felt the burning sensation in his chest and legs ease and relaxed ever so slightly. The ground shook as the Tripod's moved. The sounds of a Tripod call was muffled by the thick glass and walls around them.

There was a scream of blue fire, and the glass in the mirror at the front of the café exploded into shards. Rachel screamed, covering her head with her arms.

Smoke began to curl over the top of the bar. He looked around frantically. There was a door to the side of the bar, partially open. Blackness stood behind it.  
"Robbie," he pointed the door out. Robbie crawled across the floor, a trail of blood from a cut in his knee followed him.

"Go Rachel," Ray whispered, pushing her forward. She crawled after Robbie, blinking strands of hair away from her eyes. The three crawled through the door, and Ray shut it behind them. They staggered to the back of the small, narrow room, and huddled against the back wall. Robbie felt for his sister and hugged her to her chest.

The ceiling above them rattled and the roar of air craft moving ahead filled the silence. There were gunshot and screams. But it was all muffled. Once again, the three felt they were the only people left in the world, despite the noise.

Rachel began to cry at the sounds of the bar exploding in the room in front of them.

"It's alright Rach. It's OK. You're OK," Robbie whispered. Ray looked through the gloom to see the pale profile of his son. Robbie turned to look at him.

They shared a look, then Robbie buried his face into Rachel's hair. Ray let his head roll back against the wall. He stared up at the ceiling above him he couldn't see. He felt Rachel's breathing become heavy and even beside him, and eventually Robbie's. Ray felt his eyes spark and ache.

This was all he could give them. Himself, the father who had spent less time than he knew was, as their only protector. He put his head in his hands. He wanted to offer so more, he had always wanted to. But now, just like then, he could only manage part of what he really wanted to give them. Then: a house in a rough neighbourhood, arguments with their mother, a inability to stop being a kid himself. And now: a bed inside a gutted building. Screaming and gunfire for a lullaby. The fact that he could probably do no more in the circumstances didn't console him. Logic didn't make him feel any better.

He stared at his two kids sleeping faces, then curled himself into a small ball to sleep. He tucked his arm under Rachel's back and held her close. She didn't move, she was so heavily asleep.

All Ray wanted to do was give them more. They were still his children, however quickly Rachel was growing and how mouthy Robbie was becoming. They were his little kids, and they would always be. He wanted to show that to them. And he would, he thought, closing his eyes, by letting no harm come to them.

AS/winces/ I hope that doesn't sound corny. If it does I apologise, I'm very bad at emotional stuff. I always become corny, but I'm working on it! Hehe.

I idea of this spooked me, you know, being in an open space with the Tripods but not being able to see them through smoke.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Review please!


End file.
